My own story
I grew up in London to middle income parents - born in the 1950’s, shortly after World War 2. Like many people from that generation, they grew up with money being tight – and that mentality (sadly) stayed with them for the rest of their lives. As a family, we travelled once or twice a year – normally around Europe. They would have loved to travel more, but always felt that money was too tight. My parents had this belief that by denying ourselves of holidays and other material things, we were somehow contributing to a greater good. They certainly did think it was possible to get paid to travel!
These ideas from my parents rubbed off on me and stayed with me to young adulthood. I travelled as much as I could, but I always viewed it as an expense that would never yield a return. As I embarked on my banking career, I was exposed to wealthier people who had different ideas about travel.
Things really changed when my daughter was born - I decided that I didn’t want to live how my parents lived. I wanted to show my daughter a different life. I became obsessed with points and miles, and was able to have some amazing experiences. Some examples include traveling in the Etihad 1st class Apartment and staying at the Conrad Maldives.
As I travelled in luxury, something even more astonishing happened. I saw that my luxury travels did not make me poorer, but actually paid for themselves. No matter how much I travelled, I did not have less money or wealth.
- Travel freed up my mind of daily nonsense, and enabled me to come up with business ideas that changed my life
- I met many people, who taught me different ways to view life
- Travel got me out of my comfort zone, and forced my mind to work faster
- I was able to set up this blog and earn an income from my travel experiences
- I maximised points promotions. There were times when the points earned from a flight or hotel would provide a rebate of 50% of the price paid
Now that I am an entrepreneur, I have seen this story repeated many times – luxury travel really can pay for itself! This is why my Twitter and Instagram profiles contain inspirational quotes to encourage people to travel more.
James
I see what you are saying here. I agree too. Travel can pay for itself if you put some effort into it